Friday, August 17, 2012

A group of girls and I (Jessica) went through a 3- month study of Proverbs 31 this summer. We did this program called 'Good Morning Girls', where a group of women decide to study a particular Bible passage/ theme by studying the provided materials as well as the Bible itself. After reflecting on the day's message, every girl sends out a group email with our thoughts and reflections, so it's like a running conversation of the topic. The beauty of the study is you can do as much or as little as you want, and you can do it at any time.. and it's FREE (and who doesn't like free?? It makes me feel like I'm in college again, lol.)! We finished it about a week or so ago, and I feel SO lost without it! You should check it out at www.goodmorninggirls.org. We studied Proverbs 31 and it has been the eye-opening, life-changing, kind of awesome! I feel so inspired to be a better wife and, when the time comes, mother. In fact, I would challenge anyone to study it thoroughly and tell me that it did not change you one bit!

Anyway, as I was saying, we finished it about a week ago, leaving me wondering what to do now, while I'm waiting for the next session to start up in about a month. All of a sudden, I started hearing these blurbs on the radio about a new book out called Unglued by Lysa TerKerst (I think I spelled it right!). It's about figuring out what causes you to become emotionally unglued (hence the name, right??) and how to approach it in a biblically-based way. Of course, I was all over this, as I feel like I've been unglued quite a bit lately. Of course, this could be because I need a vacation, but still... I figure that this book could be interesting, at the least, and divine intervention at best. I bought it and have only read a few chapters so far, but I feel like this woman has written this so honestly and has really researched her information so well... I feel at times when I'm reading it that I wrote parts of it myself! I'm excited to finish it. I would highly recommend it so far... but official reviews will follow!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Those of you who know us may have heard us mention a time or two (or ten) how crazy our schedules can be at times. A lot of the time we end up working opposite schedules. Mix moving into a new house, throwing a party for a friend at the house shortly after moving in, and the fact that we are first-time homeowners in there, and you have a perfect formula for stress and that wonderful overwhelmed feeling. Great! So we decided we needed to get away for a few days to Lake Michigan. We were desperate for a BEACH! So Saturday morning, this is where we found ourselves.

Once we got tired of lounging in the hot sun (seriously, we were tired from this!), we found this little guy and hung out here for awhile.

Ahhhhhh... now that's relaxing! If you close your eyes, you can almost believe for a moment that you are somewhere tropical. *Sigh* Unfortunately, buying a house trumped an exotic vacation... the joys of growing up! Not that buying a house is bad at all... but there is no water lapping at our feet. If there is, we're in some serious trouble and should've gotten that flood insurance! :/ We are so thankful for our house and can't imagine living anywhere else now.

Unfortunately, it was short-lived, as a severe storm rolled through town, which sent us scrambling back home. Note to self: never try to beat a storm when you're in unfamiliar territory. We made it home, which is the important part. But I did wonder for a little bit if we would. And by wonder, I meant I was freaking out (on the inside) and kept praying over and over to make it home!

Anyway, I wanted to share a recipe I found after we got back home. I decided that I needed to use up a can of frosting that was about to expire, so I consulted the Googles and saw that you can make fudge in literally 2 minutes. Sweet! (No pun intended.) This sounded like my kind of recipe. It's so simple, here it is:

Heat up 1 can frosting (chocolate or white/ vanilla) on HIGH in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir. Add 1 cup (or less if you'd like) of peanut butter to liquidy frosting in can. Heat on HIGH for another minute. Stir and pour into dish lined with wax paper. Refrigerate until firm. I used parchment paper since that's all I had, and it's a bit difficult to remove from the paper and dish. But it's so delicious that I'm probably not going to be above licking the dish (or the paper)... I'd hate to be wasteful, after all. ;) I'm wondering if I could make this without the peanut butter. I also noticed afterwards that I had some praline pecans that would've been an interesting addition to the recipe. I'm totally going to try some variations of this for the holidays!

Anyway, I need to do some sorting and straightening up around the house, so that's it for now. Goodnight!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Hello and welcome to our blog! We're Alan and Jessica, and we currently live in the lovely Hoosier state (that's Indiana to those who might not be familiar ;) ). Even though we've been married for longer than a year, we still consider ourselves newlyweds at heart. We've had so many changes in our lives since getting married that we feel like we're still getting the hang of things sometimes, so it really can feel like we're still newlyweds! It has its highs and lows, but we're determined to move together through this thing called life. We hope that this blog can help keep you, our family and friends, updated on what's new with us and also help us keep in touch with all of you!